Francis, Rebuild My Church!

St. Francis of Assisi, before the crucifix 

in the Church of San Damiano

(14th Sunday in Ordinary Time-Year C; This homily was given on 6 July at St. Joseph Church in Pascoag, R.I.  See Galatians 6:14-18 and Luke 10: 1-20)

The Opening Prayer for the Mass (referred to as the Collect, for it "collects" or gathers together the people of faith for the Eucharistic banquet) is offered by the priest as a means "through which the character of the celebration finds expression" (General Instruction of the Roman Missal, #54).  In other words, what we pray at the beginning of Mass is not arbitrary.  It essentially sets the tone for the celebration we are entering. 

The Collect for the Mass this weekend, the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, addresses God and gathers the Church in a deeply theological and personal way:

O God, who in the abasement of your Son

have raised up a fallen world,

fill your faithful with holy joy,

for on those you have rescued from slavery to sin

you bestow eternal gladness.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

This prayer is a beautiful expression of the mystery of our salvation and the call we have received to eternal union with God.  Through the humility of God who, in the person of Christ has taken on our humanity, we have been raised up to eternal life.  Because Christ was willing to humble himself even to the point of His cruel death on the cross, we have been exalted to the heights of heaven with Him.

It is not the case that everyone quite naturally goes to heaven at the end of this earthly life.  We do not believe that those who have lived "decent" lives and have avoided most of the "notorious" sins have now deserved to dwell in a heaven of their choosing.  In fact, no one goes to heaven and no one enters eternal life except through the abasement and self-sacrificial love of Jesus Christ, God's eternally begotten Son (see John 14:6).  That is the glory of God and the greatest expression of mercy the world has ever experienced.  We, who have been "rescued from slavery to sin," have now been given "eternal gladness," a share in God's own Divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) which we could never have merited on our own.  This is the work of God, and how glorious that He—through the proclamation of the Gospel—allows us a share and a participation in that magnificent and life-giving work! 

Christ this weekend sends out seventy-two disciples to announce the Gospel message and to proclaim, "The Kingdom of God is at hand for you" (Luke 10: 9).  The men and women who are able to accomplish that work most effectively and most powerfully down through the centuries, of course, are the saints.  But their ability to change the world around them is a direct consequence of their willingness to surrender their lives to the power of the Holy Spirit in God's plan of salvation.  God, who in the abasement of His Son has raised up a fallen world, continues to do so though the self-surrender of the saints.  It is not our gifts and efforts that bring about the salvation of the world.  No, it was, is and always will be the Gift and the supreme self-sacrifice of God Almighty.  The saints are the ones that remind us of that in every age.

This weekend I would like to focus on one of the greatest saints who ever lived: St. Francis of Assisi.  A few short months ago the Cardinals of the Church elected Jorge Cardinal Bergolio to the See of Peter.  He could have chosen any name he wanted.  He chose to take the name of Francis.   Understanding the life of St. Francis of Assisi can perhaps help us understand why.

St. Francis was born at the end of the 12th century during a very difficult and turbulent time for the Church and the world.  People today are quick to use the word "crisis" when it comes to the Church; whether it be parish closings or a shortage of vocations, they express the situation as dire.  In many instances that estimation may be an accurate one.  Still, if we look at the Church beyond the borders of our own nation, in many places of the world parishes and vocations are thriving.  The word "crisis" does not want of an easy or facile application.  Nonetheless, in the time of St. Francis the Church was in much worse shape than some find it today.  It was not only the skeptics and the naysayers who lamented the Church's predicament.  God Himself expressed His concern over its sorry state!

The story takes us back to a small, abandoned and decrepit church in the foothills of Assisi called San Damiano.  A young Francis was praying there, alone, amidst walls that were crumbling and a roof desperately in need of repair.  Suddenly from the cross Jesus Christ spoke to him: 

"Francis!  Rebuild my Church, which as you can see is falling down around you."  

The simple Francis, interpreting that voice of command quite literally, began to shore up the walls and mend the roof of the Church of San Damiano.  But The Lord meant the whole Church, the visible Body of Christ on earth!  Because St. Francis was so humble and holy, God was able to accomplish that very thing in the course of time.  Through the abasement of the humble Francis, God was able to raise up a fallen world and to bring about a genuine renewal in the Church which began in his lifetime and continued for centuries.

St. Francis would come to be totally identified with Jesus Christ throughout his life and ministry.  He was referred to as an alter Christus, another Christ, because of his humility and deep love for God and man (not to mention more than a few animals). 

In our Second Reading for this weekend St. Paul is speaking about this mystery of identification with Christ.  His Apostolic ministry has been called into question by much lesser would-be disciples, and St. Paul does not hesitate to remind the Church of Galatia of all that he has suffered for Christ and the work of the Gospel.  He says, in typical Pauline fashion:

From now on, let no one make troubles for me; for I bear the marks of Jesus on my body.

—Galatians 6: 17  

The Greek word for "marks" that St. Paul uses is stigmata.  It means literally the wounds of Christ.  That word would take on a whole new significance in the life of St. Francis of Assisi who, towards the end of his life, received an experience in prayer in which the five wounds of Christ were translated into his very body.  Whenever you look at an image or statue of St. Francis you will see the wounds of Christ in his hands, his feet and his side.  He was that closely identified with our Lord Jesus Christ! 

How desperately the Church today needs disciples of Christ who are willing to be identified more completely with Him!  Not, of course, that we all need to receive the stigmata, but that we are willing to share in Christ's abasement and humility which allows the power of God to work in and through us to raise up our fallen world.  We lose nothing when we surrender ourselves to God in this way.  It is God who cares for us and insures that no sacrifice, no act of humility, no offer of surrender to Him for the sake of His Church and the benefit of world will go unanswered or unrewarded.

The seventy-two disciples in our Gospel this weekend return from their mission overwhelmed with joy and a sense of accomplishment.  They rejoice with Christ, saying "Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name" (Luke 10: 17).  Jesus rejoices along with them: "I saw Satan fall like lightening from the sky" (Luke 10:18).  The Devil's destructive reign is drawing definitively to a close.  There is indeed cause for rejoicing here!  Nonetheless, Christ appropriately focuses these disciples on the most important outcome of their missionary journey:

Do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.

—Luke 10:20

Satan and the demons have been cast out of heaven forever, but God, in His just providence and merciful love, has now replaced these fallen ones, writing the names of Christ's humble disciples permanently in heaven in their places.

In the upper level of the Basilica of St. Francis in the City of Assisi there is a painting by Giotto of a vision one of the friars had while St. Francis was still alive. In that vision the friar saw numerous thrones set up in heaven. Some were larger and more ornate than others, but one of them stood out among them all. A voice then said to that friar:

“This throne belonged to one of the angels cast out of paradise; now it is reserved for the humble Francis.”

How is God challenging us this week to walk in the footsteps of the humble St. Francis of Assisi?  How are we called to be more fully identified with Jesus Christ, whose abasement and humble service to the Divine will of His Father raised up our fallen world? 

Perhaps if we are willing to surrender ourselves to His glorious work more and more completely in our own lives we may also come to discover that God has reserved a place in heaven for us among the saints.

The Resurrection: Making All Things New

The old Our Lady of Providence Seminary property 

on Warwick Neck Ave., Warwick, R.I.

(This homily was given on 1 May, 2013 at Ss. John and James Parish in West Warwick, R.I. on an Evening to Honor Mary; See Revelation 21:1-8 and Matthew 28:1-10)

We all want to go back.  When the difficulties and challenges of daily life increase we often tend to nurture that desire to go back to a time or place that was more peaceful, more tranquil.  Webster’s defines “nostalgia” as a longing or yearning for the things of the past.  If we are honest we can admit that we are all a bit nostalgic from time to time.

When I was growing up in the 80s the movie Back to the Future was big at the box office.  You might remember that film in which the main character goes back to the 1950s, and encounters his own parents as they live their experience of high school.  It is easy to imagine ourselves living in the 1950s, to wax nostalgic for a less complicated and simpler life than the one we are living.  If you could go back and return to your high school “glory days” would you do it?

I had the chance to return to my old high school last week.  One of our fine priests here in the Diocese of Providence, Fr. Henry Bodah, agreed to offer our seminarians a tour of the old Our Lady of Providence Seminary on Warwick Neck Avenue, overlooking the breathtaking Narragansett Bay.  Currently our college seminary is located in Providence, close to Providence College and Rhode Island College campuses.  Beginning in 1942, however, both the high school and college seminaries for the Diocese of Providence were located on that beautiful oceanfront property, which is where Fr. Bodah began his journey to the priesthood in the late 1960s and early 1970s. 

In the early 1980s, as the seminary was relocated to Mount Pleasant Avenue in Providence, Bishop Hendricken High School had already begun to make use of the old seminary high school property at Warwick Neck for its senior campus, which is where I studied for my final year of high school.

In a sense there were two tours taking place that day: Fr. Bodah was offering a tour of the place where he had begun seminary studies, while I was able to reminisce about my senior year of high school (a decade before I would begin answering my own call to the priesthood). 

It is funny how we tend to only remember the best of the times from the past, or perhaps we simply tend to gloss over the more challenging ones.  Fr. Bodah spoke of the tumultuous time of seminary formation immediately following the Second Vatican Council; they were not always the “glory days” that one tends to associate with high school.  I recalled that high school for me, while filled with many memorable and cherished moments, was nonetheless an unsettling time of uncertainty and not always pleasant or peaceful. 

Sometimes “going back” can be painful.  You may have seen the play Our Town, or perhaps you even read it in high school.  Written by Thornton Wilder, it is the delightful story of the quaint and fictional town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire.

The point that Wilder is making is that it doesn’t matter where we are born, or what period of time we live in.  All of life matters; all of life is beautiful, and we should be able to recognize the powerful, and even painful, beauty of life right where we are.  It could be anywhere, any-town.  It could be Our Town, West Warwick or maybe wherever you went to high school.

There is a haunting scene at the end of that play which takes place in a graveyard.  Many of the characters of Our Town have passed on, and are now at rest there.  Suddenly Emily, one of the main characters, who has just died, comes to join them.  She tries to get acclimated to the place, and at one point asks if they are able to go back and relive some of the more special moments of life.  The characters there try to dissuade her; they tell her that it is far too painful.  She insists anyway, and returns to the time of her twelfth birthday.

As soon as she enters that moment, she is struck by how delightful every little detail is.  She can’t take in everything fast enough.  She comes down the stairs of her house and is overwhelmed by how beautiful and young everyone looks.  She tries to get their attention but everyone is so busy, so occupied.  It becomes more and more frustrating for her, and at one point she calls out to her mother:

“Just look at me one minute as though you really saw me.”

But, of course, her mother is doing all she can to get the family ready for the day.  She tries her father, but again, to no avail.  Finally she turns to the Stage Manager, in desperation, and says, “I can’t go on.  It goes so fast.  We don’t have time to look at one another.”

She asks to go back, once again, to her grave, saddened by the futility of her visit.  As she is leaving she looks back and says, “Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you.”  And then she turns, again, to the Stage Manager, and says, “Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?—every, every minute?”

The Stage Manager tells her no, that most of them do not…but, some of the saints do, and a few poets.  Tonight we gather together in this beautiful Church and listen to the saints, to St. John the Evangelist, to St. Matthew and especially to the Blessed Virgin Mary, who teach us what it means to live every moment of our lives, here and now.

In the Gospel for this Mass in honor of Our Lady, St. Matthew recalls the resurrection of Jesus Christ and how the angel of God meets the women at the tomb who are looking for the dead Christ.  They were at Calvary when he died, so naturally they could only be thinking of those dark and distressing days of his arrest, trial and crucifixion.  The angel of the Lord challenges them to look in another direction:

Do not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.  He is not here; for he has risen as he said…go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead and behold, he is going before you to Galilee.

—Matthew 28:5-7

Jesus Christ is not hiding in some remote past waiting to be conjured up or simply remembered in a nostalgic and passing moment.   No, He is already preparing a future for us filled with hope (see Jeremiah 29:11), and through the power of His resurrection he is already beginning to change and transform our lives even now.  Look ahead!, the angel is encouraging them; Go to Galilee!  He is already waiting for you and preparing a new beginning for your life!

In our first reading from the Book of Revelation, St. John the Evangelist is relating his vision of a new heaven and a new earth.  It is better than any memory of the past, a brilliant time of joy in which God will dwell forever with His people, and he “will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

God is not interested in going back to the things of the past!  He is eminently focused on recreating our lives in the power of the resurrection and renewing us in His mercy and grace.  Do we dare to hope that the very best and most joyful moments of our lives are not ones that we have already lived in the past, but are here in the present and also waiting for us in the days to come?  St. John tells us:

He who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new!”

—Revelation 21:5

The Good News of the Gospel Message of Jesus Christ is that God, through the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, is already beginning that renewal!  In Jesus Christ, heaven already begins to break into our world, even now.  The power of the resurrection and the glory of God can change and transform our present world and our immediate experience of life, if we let it.  No one teaches us this any better than the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In the Annunciation, the Blessed Virgin Mary is met by the Angel Gabriel who tells her of the redemption of Israel, their salvation through the Messiah who is to be born from her.  He will have the power to save all mankind, to redeem all people, if only she will accept this tremendous grace and invitation.  Mary, overwhelmed but filled with faith, suddenly offers her “Fiat,” to God.  She says, “Yes” to the Most High and allows heaven to break forth into her life and the Son of God take up a place in her own body. 

Once again at the foot of the cross, when Christ was offering His life for the forgiveness of our sins, Mary would have to ratify her “Fiat,” to accept anew the mysterious plan of God and to allow heaven to have its way in her life.   She stood steadfast and allowed the work of God to continue, not apart from her or somehow separate from her desires, but as an outpouring of her own acceptance of God’s design for the hope of eternal life.  

Finally, on the day of Pentecost, we find Mary gathered together with the Apostles and the first believers, praying fervently and ready to accept whatever God has ordained.  She allows the power of the Holy Spirit to fill her soul in a whole new way, letting heaven break forth into her life as the infant Church was being strengthened and prepared to set the world on fire. 

Friends in Christ, are we as willing to allow the power of God to come into our lives this Easter?  In this month of May, as we honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, are we able to experience the power of the resurrection and the glory of God, the power that alone can change the world in which we live?  Let us borrow that one, beautiful word from Mary, that faith-filled and fruitful “Fiat,” so that we can, in the words of Emily from Our Town, truly realize life while we live it, every—every minute.

Spiritual Legacy of Blessed John Paul II-Lenten Mission 2013

The Spiritual Legacy of Blessed John Paul II

Monday, February 18 :    
Salvifici Doloris and the Question "Why Suffering?"

Tuesday, February 19 :   
Mane Nobiscum Domine, Christ "remains with us" in the Eucharist

Wednesday, February 20:  
Duc in Altum!  Put out "into the Deep"! 

This mission will look more deeply at the life and teachings of Blessed John Paul II as we continue to embrace the insights and truths that he shared with us in the remarkable time when we knew him as our Pope.  Come and receive the one whom Blessed John Paul II never ceased to praise, glorify and offer to the world: Jesus Christ!

For audio links to these talks please click below:

Spiritual Legacy of Blessed John Paul II

Glorious, Holy...and Purified

Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome

(Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica-Year B; This homily was given on 9 November, 2012 at the Seminary of Our Lady of Providence, Providence, R.I.  See John 2:13-22)

The Basilica of St. John Lateran adorns herself with the title of “Mother and First of all the Churches in Rome and of the World.”  A rather modest distinction, no?  Of course that title comes to the Lateran Basilica because it was the place of residence for the popes from the early Church right up until the beginning of the 14^th century (only in 1305, when the papacy was temporarily displaced to Avignon did the Lateran cease to be the papal residence).  The pope, of course, being the Vicar of Christ on earth, is the visible head of the Church and is entrusted in a particular way with authority to preserve Her unity and guide Her through Her earthly pilgrimage,  to where She will be joined with Christ for all eternity.  Certainly we celebrate this morning that renowned and glorious union with Christ in which we are all, as His body, exalted.  We thank God for the Holy Father who gives his life in service of that end for us as Catholics.  What a glorious feast day!

So many of the popes down through the centuries, and especially the popes that we have witnessed personally—Pope Benedict XVI, Blessed John Paul the Great before him, others for some of us who have been on this earthly pilgrimage a little longer—have reminded us by their very lives that power, glory and the great dignity of our call are translated in this world into humility, service and the gift of self.  We seek an ever more intimate union with Christ who “came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).  The Church is called to be like Christ, to be holy, even though we are all too aware of each one’s limitations and failings.  And so it is that the Church comes to understand herself, in the words of the Second Vatican Council, as “at the same time holy and always in need of being purified” (Lumen Gentium, #8).

Therefore it is fitting that, on this glorious feast day in which we celebrate the dignity of our Divine filiation, we reflect in the Gospel on the purification of the Temple (John 2:13-22).  Traditionally the Fathers of the Church will come to understand this cleansing of the Jerusalem Temple as Jesus’ preparation for the one acceptable sacrifice, not bulls and goats and sheep but Himself.  The Lamb of God is the one sacrifice that takes away the sins of the world, and He will replace all animal sacrifices, Himself the fulfillment of God’s plan for our forgiveness and salvation.

But St. Paul reminds us, in our second reading this morning, that we are the temple of the living God, who dwells in us.  The temple, though holy, is in constant need of purification.  There are three aspects of this purification that are important for us to reflect on this morning.

Firstly, we recall that it is Christ who allowed Himself to be purified and scourged for us.  Christ, who is without sin and perfect in every way, nonetheless went through the pain and humiliation of being scourged at the pillar and endured the agony of the crucifixion well before His body the Church suffered.  He asks nothing of us that He Himself has not already endured.  When we experience purification or cleansing in this world it is not the punishment of God or His wrath vented against us.  It is the love that unites us more intimately with our Divine Bridegroom, Jesus Christ.  The cleansing and purification of this temple is good because it is from God.

Secondly, we acknowledge that we are all in need, as individual members of His body, of that purification.  We are all mindful of those times that we have taken the focus off Christ as the center of our lives and placed something, or someone, else in His place.  Through the idolatry of technology, or imprudent relationships or perhaps coming to realize that we have placed ourselves at the center of our lives, we stand in need of purification and cleansing so that this temple of the living God begins once again to be about Christ and the work of the Gospel and not about us. 

Finally, we are aware, perhaps now more than ever, of the need for us as a Church to be purified of all the ways we have failed to transform the world around us and have, instead, allowed the secular world to transform us.  How many members of the body of Christ, through neglect or apathy, have turned a blind eye to the needs of the unborn and the sin of abortion so prevalent in our culture today?   How many support abortion in the name of “choice”?  How many members of the Body of Christ in America have supported same-sex marriage and rejected God’s plan for the human family as a covenant of love between one man and one woman, bearing fruit in this world in the same way that Christ desires to unite Himself to His Bride the Church for that fruitfulness in spiritual life?  How many Catholics in our very region of the country have accepted the lie that physician-assisted suicide is a viable solution when it comes to our loved ones facing terminal illness?  There are consequences to these sins against human dignity and the gift of life.  These errors and moral failures are in need of cleansing and purification. 

Furthermore, the silence of priests—all of us, at one time or another—on these vital issues is also something which we must bear responsibility for. 

And yet how very many faithful Catholic men and women, laity, priests and religious, have sacrificed so much to be faithful and to witness to the dignity of human life, the sanctity of marriage, the dignity of the human person.  Our defense of those essential qualities and dimensions of life come at a cost and there is a tremendous struggle, to be constantly defending and fighting for what others consider to be an option at best or, at worst, a nuisance.

This struggle, this challenge, is what is known as purification.  The challenge that some must face—in this life or the next—of taking accountability for those times when opinions and decisions have not been consistent with the values and teachings of our Catholic faith is cleansing, purifying.  The acknowledgment of the need for forgiveness and God’s mercy is something that strikes at the heart of God’s work of purifying His temple. 

How are we called today, and especially in the days ahead, to embrace that purification?  How is God inviting us to be more completely united to Jesus Christ here in this world by being purified of all that is not from Him and worse, has taken us away from Him in any way?  Because a purified and cleansed Church alone will have the power necessary to accomplish what this world needs more than anything else: the transformation into what Blessed John Paul the Great called a “Civilization of Love.”  A purified Church will have the power to announce with the boldness of humility and charity the Gospel message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, the only path to mercy and human fulfillment.

Catholic Voters and Formation of Conscience

(29th Sunday in Ordinary Time-Year B; This homily was preached at all the Masses on the weekend of October 20-21 2012 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I.  See Mark 10:35-45)

Audio Link to Homily